Coast Guard announces administrative law process improvements

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard announced Friday two improvements made to the administrative law process that provide a toll-free call center at the administrative law judge docketing center and greater access to hearing transcripts.

The administrative law judge docketing center created a toll-free call center to assist parties in filing documents and understanding the process used in adjudicating cases. A help desk will provide information on how to file an answer or other required documents. The administrative law judge docketing center help desk can be reached at 1-866-612-7524. Documents also may be faxed toll-fee to the docketing center at 1-877-3453 (1-877-CGFILE).

The administrative law judge program is implementing a policy that will provide, free-of-charge, either an electronic or printed copy of hearing transcripts to involved parties. This improvement ends the 25-year long practice of charging parties for copies of transcripts. Furthermore, the docketing center will provide transcripts upon request in the appeals process. The program also intends to publish transcripts of hearings on the Coast Guard’s Homeport site to increase transparency. The rules in Title 33, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 20, will be amended to reflect this policy change.

Visit www.homeport.uscg.mil to learn more about the administrative law judge program.